Trafford move for Adidas

ADIDAS is to move to a massive new 360,000 sq ft headquarters and warehouse complex in Trafford Park.

ADIDAS is to move to a massive new 360,000 sq ft headquarters and warehouse complex in Trafford Park.

The deal, which is understood to have been agreed with property developer St Modwen, looks set to be one of the biggest property lettings of 2007.

The developer's subsidiary Key Property Investments has let a 360,000 sq ft distribution warehouse on the 16-acre former Hotpoint site at Trafford Park.

St Modwen has so far refused to confirm the name of the occupier, but Adidas is understood to have signed up for warehouse space along with 20,000 sq ft of offices. The rent is é4.75 per sq ft.

Until now the iconic German sportswear giant had its UK headquarters and warehouse in Stockport.

Building work on the new Adidas space is due for completion in November this year.

Colin Chivers, industrial director at Jones Lang LaSalle's Manchester office, advised Adidas. He said: "Whilst partially a direct retailer, Adidas is primarily a supplier to main stores, sportswear and sports clubs and this will be typical of the type of deals we will see in 2007.

Expansion

"In addition to the expansion and upgrading for the primary retailers and supermarkets, theretailers will continue to press for ever more efficient supply chains and will also need to take account of their well publicised green agendas. This will lead to much reassessment of the supply chain and distribution solutions."

Steve Johnson, partner at King Sturge in Manchester which is advising St Modwen, said: "Trafford Park continues to be a strong regional player attracting high profile occupiers. It's a location that has consistent occupier demand and developers/funds have been steadily feeding demand with new and refurbished units.

"It is a well established area and ongoing development and investment clearly demonstrates Trafford Park's 3,000 acres make it one of the largest concentration of industrial and distribution space in the UK, and already hosts over 1,400 companies, testament to its importance in the north west market.

"There is a wealth of available labour in Trafford Park and it has excellent access to the M60 orbital motorway, the Euro Rail Freight Terminal and shipping facilities via the Manchester Ship Canal. Add this to the extensive retail and leisure amenities in and around the area and you have all the necessary ingredients for a successful distribution and logistics location."

Andrew Aherne, director and head of industrial agency at Lambert Smith Hampton in Manchester, said: "Trafford Park still has the appeal.

"There is activity both from the occupier side and the supply side is responding to this. Enquiry levels for buildings of this size continue to be high and this principally continues to come from the retail sector or consumer products. It is likely that over the course of the next few months we shall see further lettings from this sector and the third party logistics operators.

Prime location

"Trafford Park continues to be a prime location for industry. The pure volume of the park enables a continual re-cycling of land providing new employment accommodation. Land for industrial development is continually being constrained by further development of non-employment uses, such as the new Snow Dome and an increasing re-cycling of traditional industrial land for offices.

"Trafford Park is continually reinventing itself and increasingly we are seeing a number of sites that historically could have come for industrial development instead for offices and leisure - Snow Dome being a prime example."

As well as St Modwen, a number of other developers are active in Trafford Park. Legal & General Investment Management are marketing Fusion at Electric Park, Westinghouse Road which includes a 208,000 sq ft speculative high bay warehouse with adjoining occupiers including Kellogg's, L'Oreal and Associated British Foods.

This has been followed by Merlin 310, a 310,000 sq ft high bay warehouse fronting Barton Dock Road, it has good prominence and is close to Junction 9 of the M60.

This scheme, being developed by Quorum/Morley FM is due for completion later this spring.

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